


Happy and Healthy

by LaughingThalia



Series: Coda [3]
Category: The Orville (TV)
Genre: (I mean not really tho), Career Change, Discovery, Elections, Episode: s01e07 Majority Rules, Fictional Religion & Theology, Law Enforcement, Lawyers, Lisella POV, Moral Dilemmas, POV Female Character, President, Rebellion, Rules, Science Fiction, Tell Your People To DO Better, deep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 07:50:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12526504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaughingThalia/pseuds/LaughingThalia
Summary: --“Tell them your world can do better.”-----If Claire and The Orville crew had done just a little bit more.---...--Lysella takes their message to heart and does more than just switch off the TV, she does something about it.--





	Happy and Healthy

**Author's Note:**

> So the reason I wrote this is because when Lysella turned off the TV I'm like, just cuz you didn't vote won't stop that man from dying for some freaking stupid ass reason! Now she's being impassive and I was taught that if you CAN vote it's your civic duty to do all you can to vote and make your opinion known. She could have upvoted, instead it seems she's doing nothing. And I know we don't know what she did after she turned off the TV and the episode ended, for all we know she could do THIS but it seemed to me like she was just going to continue with her life.

Happiness and Health

Lysella sighed as she thought about all the people she had condemned.

After Claire had sat her down and explained to her in detail how most Union planets operated, explaining the benefits and the negatives, explaining why it was better than their system; Lysella understood. She understood that the majority wasn't always correct, that just because someone was talented _(or fat or a vet with a dog)_ doesn't make them less guilty of a crime and just because she and everyone else didn't like them doesn't mean they weren't innocent.

The first time she looked at The Breakfast Show after her encounter with aliens _(she still couldn't believe there were actual aliens)_ she had turned off the TV rather than vote on a man's fate but the voting was everywhere and just because she had stopped participating didn't mean everyone else had too. People were still getting condemned to a life of _'much health and happiness'_ and no one seemed to see the wrong in it. _(Then again why would they when they had been raised on this stuff, taught that_ 'the majority was the truth' _.)_

Claire had explained mob mentality, how drugs needed medical testing and cars needed crash tests and people needed fair representation in a 'court of law', she had even given her books on it, urging her to read them after Captain Mercer had let slip that they were the only planet in the known universe to rely on such tactics _(and they had shown her the maps, the known universe was vast)_.

And so it was then that she decided to become the first lawyer. Of course with no courts a lawyer was no use so she fought people's cases in a different way, first by digging up everything she could on their past, using the tactics she had deployed in saving John LaMarr, photos from when they were kids, proof of their kindness, things like that but she didn't just want to bend the system to people's advantage, she wanted to change it.

So she started interviewing the 'criminals', presenting their cases in short videos on the Master Feed as the sole unbiased interviewer on the whole planet. At first she started receiving downvotes, at an alarming rate, _(she almost quit just to avoid being corrected herself)_ but soon enough the people whose family members she'd saved and the people whose family members had already been corrected started speaking up for her, her upvotes eventually surpassed her downvotes and the next thing she knew there were people approaching her on the streets asking her if they could join her crusade.

At first she said no, too scared that it was some kind of trick to bring her down from the inside but when it became clear that people honestly just wanted to help she vetted anyone she let on board personally and then trained them using copies she'd made of her law books. _(She had crossed out laws that didn't apply for her planet, hate crimes weren't a thing apart from hating on someone with too many downvotes, freedom of speech had never been an issue and pleading the 5th? Unheard of on their lawless planet.)_

After much voting by the public, people with over 50,000 downvotes were allowed to apply for a -20,000 downvotes so that they could integrate back into regular society and not be punished for the indiscretions of their pasts _(if they weren't against any of the Earth laws)_.

Before too long Lysella found herself being elevated to a status that could only be described as Presidential. She had never imagined this for herself, _(she had just been a regular twenty-something party girl who worked at a café to pay rent)_ she hadn't been the best at school and she wasn't good at vocational work and she had been prepared to hop from hostess job to servicing job her whole life because she liked the hours and she was good at it, it's not like it wasn't a good job, and it meant she could stay up to date on the Master Feed when she wasn't busy. And yet now people looked to her to make descriptions, to sign documents and change laws and to guide the slow transformation from PR Representative to Lawyer, _(those guys actually liked 'laywer' a whole lot better, it was less subjective, easier to try and predict and meant that someone they knew wasn't a bad guy got the justice they deserved. It made it easier to sleep at night)_.

Justice. The way it was being used now was relatively new. _(She liked it)_.

Sometimes, at night before she went to bed as she lay next to her wife _(the 'bitch' who'd 'borrowed' her blue shirt and then gone out of town all those years ago)_ she wondered if The Orville would be in trouble. The Moclan had told her they were not supposed to interfere in her planet's development _(something called 'Prime Directive' or something)_ but it had been their interference with her that had shaped how the whole planet functioned today. Lysella wished she could thank them. Claire and Alara and Kelly and Ed and his whole crew for what they had done. They'd given their planet new life, the way things had been devolving, if left to their own devices they would have destroyed themselves, she could see that even before the aliens had made themselves known to her. _(She had been wilfully ignorant, not stupid.)_

It was with all this in mind that she couldn't help the shock of joy that coerced through her when the space programme she had reinvigorated told her they had found signs of intelligent life outside of the solar system. _(Hundreds of them. Stretched all across the galaxy, across the ever-expanding universe.)_  
Now all she had to do was make official contact with them _(and feign ignorance)_.

But this was a decision not to be taken lightly, a decision that would affect them all and so it was with **pride** when she turned once more to the Master Feed to inform the people of a coming referendum. She made sure all the information about their discoveries was well structured, interesting but also factually correct _(although she'd be lying if she said she hadn't thrown a few of her personal biases in the mix)_ and most importantly easy to access. She set a date for the vote, ensuring that everyone would have enough time to read the documents _(or at least catch a news segment about it)_ and make their decision. And make their decision they did.

She had long gotten rid of the red arrow down, green arrow up thing just to make sure no one **ever** confused their new system of votes and referendums with the old system of biased, unfounded opinions. Now there was a blue button that said 'Yes' and a red button that said 'No' and if need be she changed it to fit the purpose of the vote _('Stay' 'Leave; 'Hullary for Leader' 'Trimp for Leader')_ so when the vote comes back with an astounding 'Yes' she could not be happier or prouder of her people.

It had taken two decades to finally get to the point where she could finally talk about aliens _(without sounding like a lunatic)_.

She hailed them, live streaming the whole thing on the large screens in the cities and on the Master Feed and when the giant ship appeared in their orbit Lysella did everything in her power to prevent gravity from dragging her jaw to the ground in awe. At the helm of this huge ship was none other than _Admiral_ Ed Mercer, who gave her a secretive wink, Chief Doctor Claire Finn, Admiral Kelly Grayson (Kelly Grayson-Mercer) and Head Navigator John LaMarr. Of course she recognised some of the others, the Moclan, the robot, the funny ginger one, the strong one with the weird forehead. Of course they all looked so much older _(20 years older)_ but she would recognise them anywhere, they changed her life. Claire looked at her like she was her own daughter and she could never be prouder; when she greeted her, she whispered as much in to her ear when they kissed cheeks _(Lysella tried to pretend she wasn't feeling that glowing warmth in her chest when she heard the hushed_ _“I'm so proud of you.”_ _in her ear)._

**The Planetary Union.**

It was weird knowing they were part of it.

Her planet and her people had truly never been Happier or Healthier.

**Author's Note:**

> Did anyone else thing that John was being insanely stupid this episode?  
> Also Claire and Ed seemed kinda rude about Alara's nose and forehead. Alara seemed kind of upset when Ed commented on it, maybe I'm reading into it because of Alara's SUPER obvious crush on the Captain but she seemed sad about 'do something about that nose will ya', I know I would be.


End file.
